President of Medco urges government for long-term geothermal plan

Jakarta, Indonesia (source: flickr/ yohanes budiyanto, creative commons)

Alexander Richter 14 Eki 2014

The Director of Medco Group, Arifin Panigoro said recently in local news that the potential for geothermal energy in Indonesia is estimated to be around 29,000 MW and could overcome the looming energy crisis Indonesia.

“Currently, the utilization of geothermal energy is still low at around 4-5% of the total due to huge development costs, limited funding, and licensing overlapping” he said in Jakarta.

He said, to exploit the potential of geothermal energy, the government needs to establish a long-term plan and be determined to carry it out. “This long-term plan, for example, could be to achieve a 25% of the potential 29 thousand MW in the next 5 years and the provision of budget for exploration and development of small and medium-scale plants,” he said.

According to Arifin, to achieve the long-term plan, the government needs to establish achievable short-and medium-term plans, such as accelerating the completion of licensing to three months or less.

Making power purchase pricing more attractive to investors and the determination of liability for major energy industry players to invest in the renewable energy field are also good incentives. “This issue should be resolved by the government, since these are the factors that cause investors to be less keen to invest in this country,” he said.

Based on the data contained in government records, energy consumption needs for Indonesia in 2010 reached 3.3 million barrels of oil per day. “It is estimated that in 15 years later, the requirement will be three-fold, or 7.7 million barrels of oil equivalent per day,” he said.

He added that the increase in high energy consumption must be addressed by developing renewable energy, if not the country will experience a severe energy crisis.

Source: Metro TV News